France impress with fighting spirit

France may have been comeback specialists in their UEFA European Under-17 Championship campaign but their semi-final against England proved a step too far.

There was a hint of their resilience in the qualifying round in October, when, with progress secure, France needed a late equaliser to hold Ukraine 1-1 and top Group 7. But they really proved their mettle in the elite round on home soil after losing their opening game 1-0 to Turkey.

Two days later, a Norway own goal five minutes from time and a 1-0 victory revived France's campaign and Bilel Omrani's late hat-trick against Wales sealed a 4-0 win. Although Turkey topped the group, finals hosts Liechtenstein's decision not to field a side opened up a place for best runners-up and France pipped holders Germany by one goal.

That trend continued in the finals. Les Mini-Bleus opened Group A with a 2-1 loss to Spain, ending with ten men. Then, as in the elite round, a 1-0 win followed, Portugal vanquished this time despite France having two men sent off and picking up a further suspension.

In their last group match they trailed 1-0 to Switzerland at half-time but came back to win 3-1 and grab a semi-final place. In the last four they were two down to England at the break, but swiftly pulled one back and came agonisingly close to forcing extra time.

"It is hard in a tournament to be one man down or two goals down and come back every time, it takes a lot of energy, and in the end we ran out," coach Guy Ferrier said. "If England were lucky, they deserved it because they are a good team. But I think several of my players have a bright future."

A number of the squad certainly impressed, such as right-back Youssouf Sabaly, central defender Lucas Digne, goalscoring midfielder Paul Pogba and forwards Anthony Koura and Yaya Sanogo – who made his Ligue 1 debut for AJ Auxerre earlier this month.

"My team are talented, but were in a really tough group," Ferrier reflected. "We got off to the wrong start against Spain, I think we deserved to draw, but that made it difficult. Then I was worried because of all the efforts we put in to make it to the group stage, playing with ten or even nine against 11.

"I thought we would be physically dominated by England, which happened in a way but we had a really good reaction in the second half. They showed a lot of energy and if we'd made it to extra time we'd have had more energy for sure." For the players, who will be in their early 20s when France stage UEFA EURO 2016, there is still plenty to aim for.